Dollars for oil imports
at Sayrafa exchange rate

Importers and banks to provide equivalent lira amount in cash

Dollars for imports of petroleum products, namely gasoline, diesel fuel (mazout), and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG – cooking gas), will be priced at the exchange rate of the Central Bank’s Sayrafa platform, according to a new BDL circular.

The entire amount of the invoice of shipments of imported petroleum products will be priced at the Sayrafa rate. The previous exchange rate subsidy for petroleum products covered 90 percent of the amount.

The dollar was traded on Thursday on Sayrafa at LL16,500 while it was trading on the parallel market at around LL19,000.

Dollars for imports of wheat, infant formula (milk) for babies less than one year old, medicine, medical supplies, and materials used in the pharmaceutical industry will remain subsidized at the official exchange rate of LL1507.5. The amount covered by the exchange rate subsidy will remain at 85 percent of the import bill.

Importers must provide the equivalent lira amount of their imports in cash to their banks. The banks, in their turn, must deposit lira banknotes at BDL in order to secure equivalent foreign currencies.

Imports of petroleum products reached $3.2 billion last year with subsidy cost estimated at around $2 billion taking into consideration the average exchange rate on the parallel market.